Plea deals are a deal with the devil but it's only when you're done when the debt
to the devil really becomes apparent.
Three 18 year old peers leaving football practice one of the guys goes in the
store and he steals a honey bun. The store keepers chasing. Grabs his arm
pulls away and they take off running. They run down the street. The cops pull up
three kids eating the honey bun. And they're going to charge all three
kids with robbery. If you're in custody or the system is going to post
bail one of three things is going to happen. The rich bail out. The poor can't bail
out. Then that plea deal. That's that third option. So now this kid is sitting
in jail and the bond is one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. His parents
they're hardworking people but they don't have money to pay that. And if I
can't post bail I'm going to stay in jail until the day that I actually go to
trial. Even if they were innocent. And that's why the system is full of poor people.
But then what happens? They come with a plea deal. So now they're just gonna offer
you a commercial burglary but it's going to be a felony. Plead guilty and we will
give you credit time service. Innocent people take to deals all the time
because all you want to do is go home. You give somebody a pen and say wait let me get
this straight? I sign this paper. I can get out and start trying to fix my life? Where do I sign?
My name is Charles Bradley. My bail at the time was a two hundred
thousand. My name is Marco Rodriguez. My bail was five thousand dollars.
It definitely applies pressure for you to take a deal if you can't post
money for bail. I think they make the bail steeper and steeper so you can't
bail out. So you are stuck in that situation. You're more likely to plea to a felony
if you're in custody. They know most guys want to get out of there.
They know it's overcrowded. It's diseased. Riots going on everyday in there. Tearing
your stuff up whenever they feel like.
So a lot of guys take plea deals. I was probably in the county like maybe nine
months before they offered me a plea bargain. They told me, "Look you
could keep fighting and go to trial and lose. We could give you about nine to
ten years. Or you could just plea guilty now. You'll do two and a half years."
So they kind of scared me into taking a deal. So when I had to take the deal it
wasn't because I was guilty. It pissed me off. I was actually in tears when he
presented that to me. A grown-ass man. But It went tears like I'm crying, hurt. I'm
mad. The innocent often cried plea deals. You have to say I'm guilty. And I've seen
many a plea deal fall apart where they're going down the factual basis.
On April 17th of 2017 did you do X, Y and Z? Well the reality may be no, that's not
what happened. Oh is that going to happen? Okay then deal's off! Let's set it for trial.
No, no, no. Okay yes, yes, yes and then say guilty.
The recognizable percentage of that are people that just want to go home. So now
this $2 Honey Bun has now morphed into a felony. And now this 18 year old kid
has got a record. So let's say something happens in his future? When they're
deciding whether you are in or out of jail or how much bail? They're going to say,
"Well, does he have anything his past?" Well, absolutely because he's got the Honey Bun.
They give you a sweet deal. Take it. They don't care about the convictions.
They don't understand that once you've got the conviction on your record this is on you.
The plea deal always come back to bite. Good luck getting a good job. You're not
going to get loans. You can't vote. You can't even get on a game show with a felony. Even if
they were innocent, it's going to follow you.
Plea deals are I deal with the devil. Bail is the first hook. Inability to post
bail is the beginning of life going down a whole another path from the moment you arrested.
It's just like you knocked over a domino and things just start happening.
Courts absolutely use plea deals to deal with the sheer volume of cases.
Everybody knows their caseload is real heavy. So they're trying to work the best
deal they can get with you for the court and get you out the way. If
everyone said, "I'm going to trial." You will completely shut down the court
system. It's the most unfortunate reality imaginable because it really has nothing
to do with justice. I mean the system really has to find a better way of
determining who stays in custody and who doesn't. That doesn't have money attached to it.
Money is the only thing that's going to help you up. Other than that
it's not really if the person is guilty or not. It's all about what we can bargain with.
Let's bargain. It's all a bargain.This stuff doesn't work. It's absolutely horrible.
It affects many more people than any of us can imagine.
This is the problem that's hiding in plain view.
The question is, "What are you going to do about it?"